The Mastermind: A Pleasant Yet Slight Heist Film

The following is a review from the 44th Atlantic International Film Festival.

The Mastermind is the latest film by acclaimed indie darling Kelly Reichardt that sees her apply her trademark minimalist slow cinema style towards the heist film genre. Set in the Massachusetts suburbs in 1970, The Mastermind follows JB Mooney (O’Connor), a struggling carpenter and small time thief who spends his free time at the local art gallery, admiring the expressionist paintings and snatching little trinkets behind display cases for fun. Short on cash and taking secret loans from his mother (unknown to his wife and father) to keep going, Mooney finally decides to mastermind a proper art heist to make real cash, and puts together a small team to raid four of his favourite paintings from the local gallery. When one of his trusted friends bails from the heist at the last minute, a hot headed new team member ends up putting everyone at risk and the cops on Mooney’s tail, leading to a cross country chase leaving Mooney alone and desperate as the world around him falls apart.

Unlike most heist films, the heist on display here is fairly unremarkable (in its frankness and small scale) and not the central spectacle of the picture, it merely acts as the catalyst for what Reichhardt is truly interested in exploring, the way a man unravels when it all falls apart. More weight is afforded to the mundane realities of having to store the stolen paintings by slowly carrying them up and down a ladder into the attic of a barn, or crafting fake IDs by meticulously replacing photos with an exacto knife than the planning and execution of the heist itself. Shot in long, still takes with a very soft focused, grainy film look, Reichardt’s minimalist style settles audiences into the daily rhythms of these characters, making their eventual falling apart feel even more sparse by comparison.

O’Connor has steadily been impressing with show stopping turns in La Chimera and most notably, Challengers, but his role here as a young father, turned art thief, might be his best yet. Mooney, an unassuming, fairly normal guy who gets in over his head with no real master plan to fall back on, never quite lets the situation overwhelm him to the point of inaction. O’Connor walks a thin line as he realizes that he is ultimately screwed, while putting on just enough of a face to keep going without being unrealistic about the situation at hand; a neutral realism versus a showy over confidence. The Mastermind is primarily his show but its supporting cast offers up a nice mix of character actors and interesting faces that populate this corner of 1970 Massachusetts. Most notably, this film marks Alana Haim’s first acting role since 2021’s ‘Licorice Pizza‘ in 2021, playing O’Connor’s wife Terri. While a pleasant surprise, one can’t help but find themselves a tad disappointed. Considering how good she is in the brief screentime she is afforded here … it is to play what was ultimately a small supporting role.

In the end, though it may be a film that will appeal most to fans of Reichardt’s ouvre, while potentially putting off those expecting more of a traditional heist picture with the inherent flair that the genre usually entails. Above all else, The Mastermind is a pleasant and engaging watch, albeit one that is maybe too slight to leave much of a lingering impact on audiences after the credits roll.

still courtesy of MUBI

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Alex Josevski

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